Remembering the fights that were fought

One of the things I really loved about turning to feminism and embracing gender equality while in college was suddenly discovering the generations and generations of women’s rights activists who gave me the freedoms and rights I have now. Sure, they weren’t perfect, but they were definitely inspiring and offered me a full new crop of role models and heroes. I think sometimes we as women take for granted the rights we have today and forget that they had to be fought for and sacrificed for. Last week I saw this video, put out in homage to International Women’s Day, and I thought I’d share it.

I for one try not to forget or take for granted how much previous generations of women’s rights activists sacrificed and suffered to give me in particular and American women in general the freedom we have today. I find that remembering their actions gives me courage and inspiration as I observe with trepidation the growing number of threats to women’s rights that we are seeing in the present.

Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the "purity culture," the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.

Amanda

I look at the current war against birth control and other reproductive matters and feel like I’ve fallen into some insane, dystopian timeline…

And even completely ignoring the timeliness and appropriateness (of which it had plenty), this video was freaking awesome.